Just to be clear... Do you want some chat feature built into the Lightning Network software to enable LN Hubs to talk to each other or do you want
a chat application like Whatsapp or WeChat that incorporates the Lightning Network as a internal currency with some kind of plugin? There is need
for both of these applications, but the one for a large Social media platform would be better for Bitcoin adoption.
I think these companies would
create their own Crypto currency, because they would want to control all aspects of it.
You cannot add a currency feature and then rely on
external influences to determine the future of that technology.